Posted by tourdemars to Technology at November 23, 2003 12:00 PM

Sooner or later, the United States will want to travel to Mars, if only because it’s there. The trip is about 150 million miles, assuming Earth and Mars are in optimal positions. Using normal chemical rockets, the trip would take about six months one way. Not only is that a fairly long time to stay cooped up in a minimally sized spacecraft, the amount of fuel necessary for a round trip would be enormous.